IdleAir

In west Memphis they were simply charging for the parking spots. None of the machines worked.

 

Back in 2013 or so I used IdleAire at the Pilot in Madera CA a few times. They had a non-smoking section which was nice because it didn’t stink up your cab. I don’t recall the cost back then, you had a card that you’d load money on. Put the tube into the passenger door window, slide your card on the control panel for the unit in your cab, and let it rip. It was nice having super cold AC and not having to let the truck run. There was also an outlet for plugging in anything you wanted. It was decent when I needed it but the only reason I tried it was because of the nonsmoking section they had. I’d heard the horror stories of turning the unit on and stinking up your cab like smoke.

 

not a well thought out concept, for all the reasons mentioned.

 

I used it all the time. I would go out of the way to a T/S that had them. 105+ in Eloy, Az. no idling. Usually around $1.50/hour

 

Lots of reasons why the demand was low, but there were three larger problems.

The first is Idleair came into being as company started specing trucks with bunk heaters and/or APUs and WIFI/unlimited data became available, reducing the demand.

The second in the 2007-2009 trucking recession. It's hard to get a start up off the ground when the industry and then the larger economy goes in the toilet. Given a more robust economy, they might have faired better.

The final reason is flaws in their business plan and piss poor execution.

• Any business that is dependent on government subsidies to build out it's infrastructure is starting from a weak point. That weak point becomes fatal when that business has a very small target audience and a high entry cost. Personally, I think they also vastly underestimated the cost of maintaining the HVAC system and overestimated the care drivers would take of the infrastructure.
  
• They planned on partnering with truck stops the same way Cat Scale does - install the infrastructure and provide support while having the truck stop run it. That works for Cat Scale which is a high volume, constant demand with very little staffing needed. It does not work with a low volume and high staffing need - no truck stop is going use it's employees to try and keep the Idleair spots clear for people who will use them. Idleair then switched to a corporate model - which again failed because if you're an hourly employee, you're not going to be motivated to patrol the lot. At least not when you can go get a McJob for the same money. Then they tried a franchise model, which still didn't overcome the "the juice ain't worth the squeeze" problem.
• They made almost no serious attempts at luring fleet business. In 2012 Idleair made a pitch to Schneider and I was one of the drivers invited. The presentation was both underwhelming and felt disingenuous. I don't remember the exact costs, but it was about 70% of getting a hotel room. The meeting to discuss the pitch was one of the shortest I've ever been apart of - about 20 people went "meh, I think idling would be cheaper".

Many, many, many years ago I went to a 'seminar' for prospective Jimmy John franchisee owners. They went through all the basics of starting a franchise and the pitch ended with "once you've done all that, prepare to work harder than you've ever worked in your life". Idleair didn't understand this concept of owning a business, which meant failure was almost pre-ordained.

 

Sounds a lot like home solar panel and ev start-up’s doesn’t it.